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A Pursuit of Miracles

By George Turner

E-Book

£P.O.R.

Eight journeys into the future from prize-winning author George Turner

Eight journeys into the future from this prize-winning author: a civilized society where barbarism is the norm; a search for super-intelligence that goes horribly wrong; a world where to be Non-Legal is to be non-human; an experiment to test the very nature of reality.

Contains:A Pursuit of MiraclesNot in Front of the ChildrenFeedbackShut the Door When You Go OutOn the Nursery FloorIn a Petri Dish UpstairsGeneration GapThe Fittest

Biographical Notes

George Turner (1916-1997) George Reginald Turner was an Australian writer and critic, best known for the science fiction novels written in the later part of his career. His mainstream novel, The Cupboard Under the Stairs won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's highest literary honour. His best-known SF novel, The Drowning Towers, was published in the UK under the title The Sea and Summer, and won the second Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1988. George Turner was named as a Guest of Honour for the 1999 World Science Fiction Convention held in his home town of Melbourne, but died before the event.

Other details

ISBN:
9781473225077

Publication date:
13 Dec 2018

Page count:

Imprint:
Gateway

Gollancz

By the Pricking of Her Thumb

Adam Roberts

Olympos

Dan Simmons

Authors:

Dan Simmons

Helen of Troy is in mourning for her dead husband, Paris. Killed in single combat with the merciless Apollo, his body is nothing but a scorched and blasted thing.Hockenberry, her lover, still sneaks from her bed after their nights of lovemaking. And the gods still strike out from the besieged Olympos, their single-molecule bomb casings quantum phase-shifting through the moravecs' force shield and laying waste to Ilium. Or so Hockenberry and the amusing little metal creature, Mahnmut, have tried to explain to her.Helen of Troy does not give a fig about machines. She must dress for the funeral.And man and the gods and the unknown players in this tragedy must prepare for the final act. And a battle that will decide the future of the universe itself.

Luna: Moon Rising

Ian McDonald

Authors:

Ian McDonald

Optioned for TV by CBS in a massive deal, Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy has already been acclaimed as one of the most exciting and important SF series of the decade. This is Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy for a new generation; perfect SF for fans of Gravity and The Martian looking for a wider canvas and large-scale thriller format.Akin to the mafia families of The Godfather, the families of the five Dragons who control the rich resources of the moon are locked in an endless and vicious struggle for supremacy and now the peace that reigned while the moon was colonised is breaking down. Which of the scions of the dragons will gain supremacy? Or will the moon, with its harsh vacuum, it's freezing dark and blazing, irradiated light be the final winner?

From Divergent Suns

Sam Peters

No Way

S.J. Morden

The Last of the Renshai

Mickey Zucker Reichert

Authors:

Mickey Zucker Reichert

The Last of the Renshai is the first volume of a sword-and-sorcery saga that is enormous in conception, and full of complex and arresting fantasy detail. The adventure arises from the trials of a lone warrior, a champion driven to avenge the genocide of his race. The magic lies with the immortal realms: this is a world controlled by four wizards whose strife not only presages the conflicts and wars of humans, it also threatens consequences and destruction on a world- wide scale. And the last Renshai is doomed to take on all - he will be the key for humans, wizards and gods alike. Throw in a fabulously detailed, rich fantasy world, and you have a tremendous, value-for-money, page turning epic

In The Heart Or In The Head

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

In the Heart or in the Head is a brilliant literary memoir in which George Turner chronicles his chaotic growing-up in a family for whom fact and fantasy were equally acceptable and often indistinguishable. It is also the record of his development as one of Australia's finest novelists and his entanglement with science fiction.

Yesterday's Men

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

An experiment recreating the mind-set of World War II escalates into an actual battleground between native revolutionaries and space colonists bent on subverting the power of the central government. In the midst of this turmoil, a physically enhanced agent questions his upbringing and training.

Vaneglory

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

Beloved Son told how the world was given atomic power and chose the atom bomb, was given the key to genetic miracles and chose biological warfare.The world was lucky the first time; enough of it remained for salvaging in a few decades. It was simply unfortunate that in those difficult years a new menace arose-the offer of dreams-come-true in this world, here and now. There was a price of course. What World Council could not realize-and did not properly query-was the immensity of the price, but the offer was one nobody in his right mind could refuse. Or could he?Psychiatrist James Lindley recognized the danger of dealing with the Devil but fanatical Police Controller Parker saw it as the Gift of God; Angus, whose name and face changed as often as his coat, saw it as a fine game to be played, while Commissioner Ferendija saw it as an exercise in pragmatism-and Security Tech Sanders lost everything he believed in as the welter of guilt and disillusionment swallowed him whole.Under the pressure of decision the cracks showed in the highest echelons of the proud Ethical Culture. Is there a benefit so great that, if the price were the end of homo sapiens, we would pay it?George Turner's Beloved Son was the first volume in what is now recognized as on of the outstanding science fiction achievements of the past decade. Vaneglory is its successor; and, though completely self-contained, it develops with gripping imaginative brilliance the characters and situations already established in Beloved Son.

Beloved Son

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

Forty years after his starship escapes from an apocalyptic Earth, Commander Albert Raft and his crew return to a much younger and violent Earth society that wants to embrace Raft as a god because of his telepathic powers.

The Sands of Mars

Arthur C. Clarke

Authors:

Arthur C. Clarke

It is the twenty-first century. On Mars a dedicated group of pioneers - among them some of Earth's finest brains - struggle to change the face of the planet . . .Science fiction writer Martin Gibson finally gets a chance to visit the research colony on the Red Planet. It's a dream come true - until he discovers the difficulties and perils of survival on another world . . . and the very real terror it holds.

Genetic Soldier

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

In a distant future, on an Earth populated by a scant few hundred thousand humans, the Atkins's Thomas performs without question the duties for which he was genetically bred. Called "Soldier" by one and all, he is a man of honor and ability, responsible for keeping the peace, for maintaining the status quo . . . and, most important, for guarding the great Book House on the hill - a vast repository of Last Culture knowledge presided over by Libary, Soldier's mentor, the most senior of the mystic Celibate scholars. Such is Thomas's life in the serene, semi-primitive world without nations and cities and governments - until the night the starship comes home. Having fled a dangerously overcrowded Earth years before the Collapse and the Twilight that followed, for seven centuries the men and women of the space-going vessel Search have been combing the galaxy for inhabitable planets - their aging processes dramatically slowed by the relative magic of light speed travel and cryogenic sleep. And now, lonely and frustrated, the weary voyagers have returned to a homeworld unrecognizably altered by the relentless tides of time - a world that does not want them back. A bitter welcome awaits the Searchers, as old Libary gathers Earth's Ordinands and Elders together to tap the terrifying power of the collective unconscious - in preparation of the Carnival night when they will sweep the helpless intruders back to their lonely sky in the name of Holy Science. And it is Soldier who stands in the middle, silent and alone - bound by duty to evict the homesick star-travelers . . . yet cursed by a preordained genetic destiny that has decreed their eviction will mean Soldier's death.

Destiny Makers

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

In the era of "the big squeeze" - when an environmentally ravaged Earth groans beneath the weight of twelve billion people - two men control the destiny of humankind. One was recently senile...the other is going insane.In the year 2069, with the Earth's population dangerously out of control, procreation and the medical treatment of terminal illness are the two most heinous crimes against society. But behind the doors of the top secret Biophysical Institute, an old man has been illegally cured of the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and made artificially younger - to serve the unspecified purposes of Premier Jeremy Beltane, one of the world's most powerful leaders. A member of the underprivileged "Wardie" class, Detective Sergeant Harry Ostrov has been assigned to serve as a guardian to the mysteriously rejuvenated nonagenarian - and entrusted with a devastating secret that could topple the unstable "Minder" government. But once within the confines of the Beltane family enclave, the dedicated police officer is dragged deeper and deeper into a lethal mire of scandal, corruption, political outrage, and moral dilemma - sworn to silence even as he observes his nation's ruler, a man ultimately responsible for the future of civilization, descend steadily into depression, uncertainty . . . and madness.

Brain Child

George Turner

Down There In Darkness

George Turner

Authors:

George Turner

Two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action - not by being killed, but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death.They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been "cleansed" from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life. This cleaning was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world - and who, in this distant future, are dying off.This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner's characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.

Thin Air

Richard Morgan

Rejoice

Steven Erikson

Authors:

Steven Erikson

From the bestselling author of the epic Malazan Book of the Fallen, comes a story of mankind's first contact and a warning about our future. An alien AI has been sent to the solar system as representative of three advanced species. Its mission is to save the Earth's ecosystem - and the biggest threat to that is humanity. But we are also part of the system, so the AI must make a choice. Should it save mankind or wipe it out? Are we worth it?The AI is all-powerful, and might as well be a god. So it sets up some conditions. Violence is now impossible. Large-scale destruction of natural resources is impossible. Food and water will be provided for those who really, truly need them. You can't even bully someone on the internet any more. The old way of doing things is gone. But a certain thin-skinned US president, among others, is still wedded to late-stage capitalism. Can we adapt? Can we prove ourselves worthy? And are we prepared to give up free will for a world without violence? And above it all, on a hidden spaceship, one woman watches. A science fiction writer, she was abducted from the middle of the street in broad daylight. She is the only person the AI will talk to. And she must make a decision.

R. A. Lafferty: Three Great Novels

R. A. Lafferty

Authors:

R. A. Lafferty

Acclaimed, as one of the most original voices in modern literature, Raphael Aloysius Lafferty drew more from traditional oral storytelling techniques than from the usual pulp roots of SF. His inventive style and fondness for tall tales marked him out from his contemporaries, and writers of the calibre of Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe acknowledge him as a major influence and force in the field. His fiction has garnered numerous award wins and nominations and he has been given the prestigious SFWA Grand Master Award and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. This volume contains three of his early novels: the Hugo- and Nebula-shortlisted Past Master, space opera re-telling of The Odyssey, Space Chantey, and Fourth Mansions, also shortlisted for the Nebula.

Jerry Cornelius: His Lives and His Times

Michael Moorcock

Authors:

Michael Moorcock

Jerry Cornelius is an English assassin, physicist, rock star, and messiah to the Age of Science. Mainstay of the infamous and influential magazine NEW WORLDS and star of some of Moorcock's most celebrated novels, here are the short stories which made his name. Set in a shifting, fluid version of the counter-culture 1960s, the adventures of Jerry Cornelius were among the most prominent 'New Wave' SF books. Jerry Cornelius is one of the most remarkable and distinctive characters in Moorcock's work, and his time-travelling, trippy and bizarre adventures are must-reads.Contains a wide selection of Jerry Cornelius short stories, including THE NATURE OF THE CATASTROPHE, THE ENTROPY CIRCUIT, THE DELHI DIVISION and many more.